This is the first "proper" public screening of The Hobbit, and will mark the start of the Box Office (I think). Due to the fortunate layout of the International Date Line, New Zealand STILL gets to see this before anyone else.

As far as I can tell there's satill tickets available for this one as well.

Apart from this plethora(*) of special screenings, I know there's also a large number of Laketown Extras attending one of the sessions on December the 14th, and will have a communal picnic somewhere the next day (15th). Don't know when, don't know where. I'm not invited (though Alex (my wife) is, but she's not telling me).

If anything changes I'll keep this page updated, so keep checking back for more info!

This page is published on the welly-moot blog, and if you're reading this on facebook, google+, RSS, or twitter, or even via email, you may be missing the links. Check www.welly-moot for more details. That's always the source.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

The second Hobbit movie premiere may be in L.A. this year, but that doesn't mean Wellington will be left behind. It looks like we're having a party after all!

We have just received a press release from Roadshow, the NZ distributors of the Hobbit movies, about a charity event with a preview of the second movie, the Desolation of Smaug.

In short, on the evening of December the 9th, there will be a Gala event hosted at the Embassy Cinema in Wellington. The movie itself will start at 7:15pm, but the doors will be open earlier, and it sounds like a grand event is planned, with six of the dwarves in attendance.

Tickets will be $100, with all proceeds going to the Island Bay Marine Education Centre.

PROCEEDS FROM THE NEW ZEALAND GALA PREMIERE OF THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG TO GO TO LOCAL CHARITY

Charity Gala Premiere Set For Monday, December 9, in Wellington

This year, the general
public and avid Hobbit fans alike will have the opportunity to purchase tickets
to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of
Smaug at the New Zealand Charity Gala Premiere on December 9 at The Embassy
Theatre, Wellington.

The film, a production of
New Line Cinema and Metro Goldwyn-Meyer Pictures (MGM), opens across New Zealand cinemas on December 12.

Tickets to the prestigious
event will be available for purchase from Thursday, November 21 at 3pm on the
Event Cinemas website (www.eventcinemas.co.nz), Roadshow Film Distributors
announced today.

Cost per ticket will be
$100 with all proceeds raised at the event to go to the Island Bay Marine
Education Centre.

“We are proud to support The Marine
Education Centre, they give so much to this city, we are very happy to be able
to give something back," said filmmaker Peter Jackson.

"We are delighted to
be involved with this event and the money raised will help us to reach more
people of all ages to inspire them to want to learn about our oceans,” said
Judy Hutt of The Island Bay Marine Education Centre.“We think education is the key to caring for
our environment and the younger you start learning the better. We also think
that the best way to learn about marine life is to have close encounters with
it. That's what the Island Bay Marine Education Centre is all
about."

Actors from the film,
including Jed Brophy (Nori), Stephen Hunter (Bombur), Mark Hadlow (Dori), John
Callen (Oin), Peter Hambleton (Gloin) and William Kircher (Bifur), will also be
in attendance.

Along with being among the
first in the world to see the next film in Peter Jackson's epic Trilogy, guests
will also be treated to light refreshments and canapés prior to the 7.15pm film
start time, have the opportunity to walk away with some exclusive merchandise
from the film and a few other surprises.

New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Present a WingNut Films
Production, The Hobbit: The Desolation of
Smaug.The
screenplay for the film is by Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter
Jackson & Guillermo del Toro, based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien.Jackson
also produced the film, together with Carolynne Cunningham, Zane Weiner and
Fran Walsh.The executive producers are
Alan Horn, Toby Emmerich, Ken Kamins and Carolyn Blackwood, with Philippa
Boyens and Eileen Moran serving as co-producers.

The Hobbit:
The Desolation of Smaug is a production of New Line Cinema and
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM),
with New Line managing production.Warner Bros. Pictures is handling worldwide theatrical distribution,
with select international territories as well as all international television
distribution being handled by MGM.

I've just had word from above that there will be a special announcement for the Wellington Hobbit fans this afternoon - I will be able to reveal more around 2:00pm today, Thursday 21st of November (NZ time).

Please check this blog today - time will be of the essence!

As an aside - I'd like to get people's opinion about whether we should set up an "urgent announcements" mailing list. Good idea?

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

What a great day it was here in Wellington. Peter Jackson's Live Fan Event went off without a hitch, and as far as I could tell it all went according to everybody's plans.

We watched the latest Trailer, a brand new Hobbit Production Diary (number 12 already!), extended scenes from the first Hobbit movie, the new credits song for the second movie, and then, somewhat unexpectedly, a full 20 minutes of preview scenes from The Hobbit 2: Desolation Of Smaug.

On top of that, there was a lively back'n'forth live question and answer session between Wellington, London, New York, and Los Angeles, involving Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom, Lee Pace, Andy Serkis, Luke Evans, Jed Brophy, and Sir Peter Jackson himself.

The press was involved as well - apart from the organisers' camera crew, I also saw New Zealand's TVOne and TV3 crews, as well as radio stations ZM-FM and NewsTalkZB.

Rather than collecting absolutely every last mention of the Event, I've decided to focus on just news items that feature Welly-moot members, so we can all enjoy our 15 minutes (seconds?) of fame. If I've missed anything, please let me know!

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Sorry if you missed out - but congratulations if you're in! We're looking at being present at the centre of The Hobbit universe on Tuesday the 5th of November!

If you are one of the lucky ones, I've taken your name, email address, and mobile phone number. The organiser's ticketing team will send each email address a link to click on for rsvp-ing, and then their system will spit out a personalised ticket with barcode to download and print, or have on their smartphones to have scanned in on entry..

Costumes

I'm hoping there will be plenty of cool costumes on the day - please feel free to leave the civvies behind and come in full Middle-earth attire! Alex & I will be costumed, and I understand quite a few others will be as well. Come join us, don't be shy. :)

Today (Saturday) we paid a visit to the Costume Cave on Wakefield Street; an excellent source of costumes. On Monday, the TV crew will go back with us, to film us selecting the costumes (I know, we cheated, and selected them today). If anybody wants to join us for that, please let me know; I've got a few others there as well, but if you wanted a shot at fame, now is your chance! The TV crew will likely look for us on Tuesday as well. I'm thinking of bringing my full-sized Narsil blade (unbroken). Not sure if I'll get it past security though.

Let's have a great fun day on Tuesday! This is a unique occasion! Don't waste the opportunity!

Friday, November 1, 2013

NB - Due to all the excitement around the Live Fan Event earlier this month, it looks like I never hit the "Publish" button on this report. My apologies, so here it is. Some of the items are somewhat late but better late than never, right? ;)

The Welly-moot group met on 27th October. As usual, we started with catch-ups between members, and we exchanged some news and updates.

From left front, clockwise: Kris, Jack, Martyn, Wayne, Annabel, Francine (hands only), and Cinnamon. As usual, Alex, managed to avoid the camera by taking the pictures. Also present were Annabel's two hobbits.

Jack talked about the Hobbit Fan Event on 5th November at the Embassy Theatre. The Welly-moot group has been invited to attend by the organisers RoadShow Distributors. There will be further announcement on this website in the next few days..

The was a report about the Auckland Armageddon fantasy convention from Cinnamom. Also, we have a new member; Franziska, from Germany. She has always loved Tolkien's stories and has finally made it to New Zealand, which was a childhood dream of hers.

Cinnamon and Franziska

The main discussion today was about King Thranduil's history (Legolas’ father). We had interesting discussions about him. Who is he? How did he get to Mirkwood? Where is Legolas's mother?

Everyone brought their books and we took turn to read the parts related to Thranduil, or to his father Oropher. The skant information available about them makes this a fascinating part of the histories.

Martyn and Wayne

Jack had scoured the net for some more information about Legolas' mother, but nothing concrete was found. He did stumble on a Yahoo Q/A, where someone named "Celtic Druidess" had this to say (slightly paraphrased):

Who is Legolas’ mother / Thranduil’s wife?

Tolkien never really created a full family tree for Legolas. We can trace his lineage back on his father's side to his grandfather, but no further.

It is possible that Thranduil’s wife was one of the Silvan Elves (Thranduil being a Sindarin elf), which is made clear in in the History of Galadriel and Celeborn (in Unfinished Tales), where there's a brief account of the arrival of Thranduil's father Oropher among the Silvan Elves of Greenwood the Great. It's made obvious there that Oropher and his small band of Sindar merged themselves completely with the Silvan people of the Wood, leaving behind their Sindarin inheritance. By this time, Thranduil had already been born, and in order to link themselves to the Silvan elves, it is likely that Thranduil had been married to one of them. But this is never dwelled upon, and so is just an educated guess.

The extended discussions were about the "real world" Kings in England, The Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. In the real life, the kings are not exactly blood line, however in Tolkien’s world the Kings are totally blood lines ("blue blood???"). Aragorn was an exile and eventually becomes the King, merely because of the blood in his veins.

After the Tolkien discussions, we returned to the Hobbit 2 movie release. We have agreed what we would like to do something in December when the Hobbit 2 (Desolation of Smaug) will be released. We will contact to the Embassy Theatre to watch Hobbit 1 on 12th December evening, then we will watch the Hobbit 2. We also have of a party on 12th at the Embassy if we can. We will announce the details on this Website. It can be a costume party as well.

We will update this blog about the Event on 5th November. Keep your eyes open!